Santiago Internship Stories: GS Graduate’s Research on Accessibility of International Programs

August 06, 2020

Jolene Marie Singh, who recently graduated from Columbia’s School of General Studies (GS), is one of two students participating in an internship working to identify emergency prevention and mitigation strategies that aid Higher Education International Mobility Programs with Universidad Católica’s (UC) Undergraduate Internationalization Program.

Working with co-intern, GS student Anne Nguyen, and under the guidance of Maribel Flórez, UC Director of Global Learning and Mobility Programs, and Lilian Ferrer, Director of International Affairs at the School of Nursing, Singh is identifying barriers to access global programs and how to overcome them. She and her team hope to “produce a scoping review of the literature that summarizes best practices in international mobility program administration.”

Through this internship, Singh – who has a degree in Neuroscience and Behavior - has gained an understanding of the factors affecting the structure of international mobility programs, such as cross-cultural differences. Programs have to balance accessibility and ensure participants are sufficiently prepared in order to have maximum success for everyone involved. This entails advocacy for closing cultural, economic, and social gaps that affect participation and quality of study abroad. She is also learning how to research and write a scoping review as part of an interdisciplinary team, while further honing technology use to manage information and streamline communication.